The top 10 signs of caregiver stress, according to the Alzheimer Society of B.C., are denial, anger, social withdrawal, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, sleeplessness, emotional outbursts, lack of concentration and developing health problems of your own.

The top 10 ways to reduce your stress as a caregiver to an ill family member are learning as much as you can about the disease they have, being realistic about their abilities, being realistic about how much you can take on, accepting your feelings about the situation, sharing your feelings with others, staying positive, trying to find the humour in life, taking good physical and emotional care of yourself, getting help and emotional and practical support when you need it and planning for the future.

What can a senior do to ensure they aren’t a burden on their caregiver?

Plan with your family now for the eventuality that you could need care at home. Put your affairs in order and your wishes down on paper. Put in place a power of attorney, a care agreement, a will, life and disability insurance and so on.

Learn more at NIDUS: Personal Planning Resource Centre and Registry (www.nidus.ca) and through the Public Guardian and Trustee of B.C. (www.trustee.bc.ca).

What can society do to assist caregivers?

The United Way advises that caregivers need a multi-pronged support system — peer support groups, education workshops, recreation and respite care opportunities — to help them stay healthy and cope. They also need access to resource libraries, help lines, outreach services and counselling.

To this end, the agency has invested $2.7 million in 2009-10 to support seniors and caregivers, funding programs such as the Community Access for Seniors Independence pilot project to help provide services that allow seniors to age in their homes. The agency also funds targeted services, providing about 1,500 caregivers of seniors with counselling, respite care and support, organizing about 2,000 volunteers to connect with isolated seniors and delivering around 100,000 meals to homebound seniors.

Who are the caregivers?

The Canadian Study of Health and Aging found that the vast majority of family caregivers for the elderly are women, usually wives (24 per cent) or daughters (29 per cent). Most of these caregivers are getting on themselves: half were over 60 and 36 per cent were over 70. Caregivers spent an average of 44 to 63 hours on caregiving, with the higher end taken up by dementia patients.

What will be the impact of the expected rising rates of dementia on caregiving?

According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada’s Rising Tide report, the demand for home care among dementia patients alone will be overwhelming in the next few years. They estimated that in 2008, 55 per cent of Canadians over 65 with dementia were living in their own homes, and thus requiring home or community supports, and by 2038, 62 per cent of Canadians over 65 with dementia were expected to want to live in their own homes — an increase of more than half a million people — placing greater demands on family caregivers and neighbourhood services. The amount of unpaid caregiver hours spent looking after people with dementia alone is expected to triple, from 231 million hours in 2008 to 756 million hours in 2038.

According to the national Alzheimer society, family caregivers looking after someone with dementia are apt to spend 75 per cent more time caregiving than those taking care of relatives with other medical issues.

“The task of caregiving can be unrelenting,” the Rising Tide report states. “When the role becomes unbearable, there are two frequent consequences: the person with dementia moves to a long-term care facility; and the caregiver’s health is diminished and the individual requires health services themselves. The job is hard — physically, emotionally, and financially. Caregiver stress has been shown to be a significant predictor of early institutionalization for the person with dementia.”

Why are we facing a caregiving crunch?

Several social patterns are working to reduce the pool of family caregivers. As the population grows older, fewer spouses will be alive to take care of their partners. Women more often have jobs outside of the home, making it harder for them to care for their parents. And they are having their own children later, so often still have kids at home when their parents begin to need care, creating a “sandwich generation” of boomers trying to balance it all. And these women can also become what’s called “serial caregivers,” caring for children, then senior parents or in-laws, then an aging spouse. With no break or time to themselves, they can burn out easily. Families are also smaller, with fewer siblings to share the care of older parents, and these days they are often living far apart.

What will be the impact of aging boomers on our caregivers and health-care system?

“Until the baby boomer generation begins to die, seniors requiring some form of care will outnumber the number of middle-aged and senior children able to care for them,” the report states. “With more people living into their 80s, we can only expect health-care costs to continue to grow. We cannot avoid the reality of higher future costs to simply maintain our current standards of care. In this endeavour, family, friends and communities will play a vital role. Governments alone cannot spend enough to pay for comprehensive care of seniors.”

What can children of aging parents do?

Have an honest discussion with your family members about their health and future needs before they are in crisis.

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